Nash Point Lighthouse

Nash Point Lighthouse was designed and built by

Joseph Nelson being completed in 1832 to mark the

hazardous sandbanks off Nash Point, overlooking

the Bristol Channel. This followed the wrecking of

the passenger steamer Frolic on these sands in 1831,

with a heavy loss of life.

Two circular towers were built, each with massive walls and

a stone gallery. The eastern, or high lighthouse being 37

metres high and the western or low lighthouse 25 metres

high. Placed 302 metres apart they provided leading lights

to indicate safe passage past the sandbanks. The high

light was painted with black and white stripes and the low

light was white. In those days both towers showed a fixed

light which was either red or white depending on the

direction from which a vessel approached. The red sector

marked the Nash Sands.

The low light was abandoned circa 1925 and the high

light was modernised and painted white. In place of the

fixed light a new first order catadioptric lens was installed

which gave a white and red group flashing, this was

removed in the automation of the station and replaced

with a rotating optic. Nash Point Lighthouse was the last

manned lighthouse in Wales. It was automated in 1998

with the keepers leaving for the last time on the 5 August.

The lighthouse is now monitored and controlled from the

Planning Centre at Trinity House in Harwich, Essex.

 

© Trinity House is the General Lighthouse

Authority for England, Wales and the

Channel Islands.

Done